Stan Chamberlain (Initial OES President) and Fred Maltz (longest serving OESNL Editor)
The Early Years: 1970 – 1990
The newsletter (NL) of the Oceanic Engineering Society (OES) is one of only two activities of the OES that have existed over the full 50 years of the Society’s existence (the other being the OCEANS Conference). The NL began in simple form in 1970 without a designated continuing editor until 1973 when Donald Bolle from Brown University assumed that role. Professor Bolle continued as NL editor until 1978 when he relinquished it to became the founding Editor-in-chief (EIC) of the new IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering (JOE). At that point, the initial form of the OES was the Oceanography Coordinating Committee (OCC), an organizational form allowed by IEEE to sponsor conferences and have a newsletter but did not allow it to produce an archival journal. By 1973, The OCC had transitioned into the Council on Oceanic Engineering (COE), a form which was allowed by IEEE to have such a journal. The members of the COE were other IEEE societies, not individual IEEE members. With the need to organize OCEANS conferences at various locations, the desire for member individuals and local chapters was fulfilled by transitioning from a council to a society to become the Oceanic Engineering Society on January 1, 1983, with Stan Chamberlain as its initial President.
Harold (Hal) Sabbagh was the NL editor from 1978 to 1990. In addition to including calls for papers for OCEANS and other conferences, the various activities of the COE, and the oceans-related activities of COE’s (society) members, the NL published technical articles of general interest to its readers. One such feature article was “An Overview of the U.S. OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) Development Program,” by Robert Cohen from the U.S. Department of Energy, in the March 1979 issue. The June 1982 issue included the full Technical Program for the OCEANS 82 Conference. The NL contained the “It’s A Puzzlement” series with puzzles to challenge readers. One such example (from the December 1981 issue) is the “Chinese Rug Puzzle”: A rug that is 10 ft by 10 ft is to be cut on a continuous line. The two parts are to be combined with a second rug that is 1 ft by 8 ft to form a single rug that is 9 ft by 12 ft. Show how to make the cut. Those of you who choose to test your skill can compare your answer to that in the March 1982 issue (linked from the OES website, Publications, OES Beacon Newsletter, Recent and Past Issues, Past Issues (pdf)). Hal Sabbagh had an entertaining sense of humor. In his last issue he said: “I am retiring as OES Newsletter editor, so it is my duty to reminisce. When I assumed this position in 1978, the Chicago Daily News had just ended publication, and this past year the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner went belly-up. Hence, of the three great American newspapers, only the OES Newsletter has survived the last dozen years. (Yes, I know that the OES Newsletter is a transnational publication, but calling it an American newsletter fits the context better, don’t you think?)” Given all the other newspapers that have hit the skids since then, I guess the staying power of the OES Newsletter is even more remarkable today, don’t you think?
The longest tenured OES NL editor was the late Fred Maltz, who served from 1990 to 2009 (See following Fred’s Obituary). To summarize the NL under his editorship, I’ll let him do the summarizing in the following unpublished article Fred produced in 2005 as background for the paper “The IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society at Forty: The Challenges of an Evolving Society,” JOE, January 2008, pp. 1-54.
The Middle Years: 1990 – 2009 (by Fred Maltz)
Hal Sabbagh was the first, long standing, editor of the OES Newsletter (OESNL). He served in this capacity from 1978 to 1990. Fred Maltz became the new editor in 1990. The next year, the first IEEE produced OESNL appeared when Glen Williams was president of the OES. A paper by John J. Carey and Joseph R. Vadus, which described the role of NOAA in the development, utilization and conservation of the oceans and their resources was featured in the Summer 1992 issue of OESNL. The following year, Stan Chamberlain published a description of the OES Technology Committees in the Spring 1993 issue of OESNL. This was also a call for participation from the general membership and the beginning of a discourse in OESNL on Technology Committees activities.
In 1993, OESNL began the publishing of Winning Student Papers at OCEANS Conferences, coordinated by Norman Miller. Also, in 1994, OESNL included an interesting paper on the history of the Harvard Underwater Sound Laboratory in the early 40’s, thanks to Roger Dwyer. It was in 1994 under the OES President, Joe Czika, that OESNL began to publish Editorials from the Vice Presidents of the Society. There were two editorials in the Fall 1994 issue, one by Jim Collins, VP for Technical Activities and one by Norman Miller, VP for Professional Activities. Also, in 1994 OESNL began to report on Chapter Activities. This first report was from Ed Early, Chapter Coordinator and Jim Barbera, Washington/Northern Virginia Chapter Chairman.
It was in 1994 that OES held its first OCEANS Conference outside the North American Continent and the U.S. Subsequently there were three international news items carried in OESNL in 1995. The first was the editorial by Ferial El-Hawary, VP International, announcing the success of the first of the International OCEANS Conference Series, OCEANS’94/OSATES, which was held in Brest, France, during September, 1994. The second was a report on further details of the Brest conference by Glen Williams. The third international article was a reprint from the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society Newsletter entitled “A Short History of French Trans-Atlantic Cables from the French Viewpoint” by Rene Salvador. This article was supplied by Tom Carver who was transitioning their newsletter to a magazine at the time. Tom lived on Cape Cod, MA, and noted that the U.S. terminus was in Orleans, MA, which is now a museum. This was the second part of an article, the first of which was published in the Winter 1994 OESNL, entitled “The French Cable Museum,” also courtesy of Tom Carver. Coincidentally, the French terminus was outside of Brest, France, in Deolen.
In the ensuing years, 1996 and 1997 OESNL began reporting on IEEE inter-society activities. This included the “Sharing Activities Letters” of Harold Goldberg who was Chair for the IEEE Technical Activities Board’s Public Relations Committee, and Norman Miller’s reporting on the Professional Activities Council for Engineers, which is part of the IEEE U.S. Activities Board. Also, in 1997, OESNL began the “Who’s Who In The OES” column originated by Ed Early. These years saw the transitioning of the OES leadership from the presidents Glen Williams and Joe Czika to Claude Brancart who previously served as OES Secretary. The next stated goal envisioned by Claude was for the newsletter to improve graphical presentation and coverage of individual members within the OES. Since that time a more personal touch has been evolving in the newsletter.
In 1998, OESNL began to appear on the Web. The first two issues appeared in PDF form only, and after that in both PDF and HTML. This was also the year that the OCEANS conference returned to France. This time it was held in Nice, France. In the Fall ’98 issue of OESNL, Rene Garello, OCEANS’98 Technical Committee Co-chair and President of the IEEE/OES French Chapter, proclaimed that the conference was clearly a success. Throughout 1999, under the new leadership of Glen Williams who returned to serve another term as president, the OES explored various options for delivering the newsletter to its members. Finally, with such faithful advocates as Joseph Vadus, in early 2000 Glen announced “… for the foreseeable future, the OES will continue to publish the Newsletter in both hard copy form as well as the Web based electronic versions, with the hard copy version delivered to all the members …” Also, in 2000, the EIC of OESNL, Fred Maltz, was awarded the Distinguished Service Award at the OCEANS conference in Providence, RI.
In the winter 2001 issue, John Irza initiated a regular column entitled “Soundings,” which was designed to report on Ocean Engineering news as it appears in the mainstream media. Also, in 2001, color was introduced to the newsletter, and expanded coverage of people and events. A concerted effort was made in 2002 to provide the members with an upgraded, high quality print version of the newsletter with relevant and interesting content.
In 2003, the strategic management of the OES and plans for revitalization of the AdCom were communicated to the members by the then OES President, Tom Wiener, in a regular series of President’s Messages. In addition, long term OCEANS Conference planning reports were initiated by Joseph Vadus, Vice President International and Life Fellow. The latter were in the form of editorials and included other non-OCEANS, symposia and workshops. Also, in 2003, increased coverage of non-North American events as UT ’04 International Symposium in Taipei, Taiwan, and US-Baltic 2004 International Symposium in Klaipeda, Lithuania, were given more visibility. This trend will continue beyond 2004 with a Scientific Submarine Cable Workshop in Tokyo, Japan, reported on by Hisaaki Maeda and the symposia on Ocean Electronics in Cochin, India, brought to the attention of the OES by Jim Collins. These and the two-per-year conference plan for OCEANS Conferences, one of which is non-North American, has prompted a call by Tom Wiener, for two new Associate Newsletter Editors, one from Europe, and one from Asia-Pacific. A secondary purpose of this was to strengthen ties with local chapters. John Irza of the Boston chapter was appointed as an Associate Editor of OESNL earlier.
During 2004 and early 2005, the IEEE Newsletters Coordinator, Paul Doto, has been working with the EIC to further improve newsletter graphic presentation, with a distinctive appearance emerging in the Spring 2005 issue. Also, in 2005, work was started on the OESNL Web Archive to include an XML formatted version in addition to the PDF and HTML versions. The purpose of this is to gain experience with the forthcoming XHTML standard and to explore possibilities for more efficient newsletter material handling and new options for enhanced newsletter content delivery. This is in keeping with the future goals of partial automation of the newsletter production process and a richer viewing experience for the readers of the newsletter.
In the latter part of 2005, it was voted on by the AdCom to accept paid advertising in the newsletter. Also, in 2005, two newly appointed Associate Editors of OESNL, John Watson from the Aberdeen Scotland chapter and Sheng-Wen Cheng from the Taipei Taiwan chapter were welcomed aboard.
The Later Years: 2009 – 2020
Jim Gant was the OESNL Editor from 2009 to 2014 and Fred Maltz continued on as Consulting Editor. Marinna Martini took on the position of editor of the newly created e-newsletter. The e-NL was created to provide for rapid distribution of time-critical items between the quarterly issues of the NL. Marinna passed the torch to Toshihiro Maki for the 2014-2015 years. As the OES activities increased in number and variety, the size of the OESNL expanded. Listings of names of new members joining OES during the previous 3-month period began to appear. Each issue following an OCEANS conference continued to contain photos and poster abstracts for each student in the Student Poster Competition, along with the full paper from the first-place student winner. On the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic (the July 2012 NL issue) an interesting article appeared by Joe Vadus on events onboard the Titanic leading up to its sinking. Memorable antidotes of deceased OES members appeared during Gant’s editorship, including on Neil Brown, Albert Bradley, Rodney Coates, and Bill Carey. Student competitions were described, including International Submarine Races (U.S.), underwater autonomous vehicles (SAVe/India & SAUC-E/Europe), Underwater Robot Competition/Japan, and National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB/USA). The increasing number of conferences, symposia and workshops sponsored by the OES were announced and reported, including UT/China’09, Japan’11, India’13; SYMPOL/ India’09, ’11, ’13; Baltic’08, ’10, ’12, ’14; AUV’12, ’14 ; Chile-U.S.’08 Workshop, Techno-Ocean’12; OTC U.S., Brazil, Arctic; GEOSS; and others. In 2015, The OESNL was given a new name, The OES BEACON, Newsletter of the Oceanic Engineering Society.
An Interesting addition added by editor Jim Gant was a series of ocean-related poetry. These included works by Henry Larson (The Vagabond / July’10 issue), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (The Phantom Ship, The Tides, The Tide Rises The Tide Falls, The Sound of the Seas / Dec’10, The Lighthouse / Jan’12, & The Secret of the Sea / Aug’13), Unknown (The Dreadnaught / Jul’12), Walter Mitchell (Reefing Topsails / Jan’13), Jose-Maria de Heredia (Les Conquerants (The Conquistadors, translated into English by Chris de Moustier) / Jun’14), and a traditional Newfoundland folk song (The Ryans and the Pittmans / Dec’14).
In 2015 the leadership of the OES Beacon was greatly expanded under the new transnational Co-Editor-in-Chiefs, Harumi Sugimatsu (Japan) and Bob Wernli (U.S.), with Kevin Hardy (U.S.) as Associate EIC. Their team included 7 (later expanded to 11) Contributing Editors from various countries across the globe. By this time the Beacon had taken on the form of a glossy magazine filled with high quality photos supporting articles and announcements of the voluminous world-wide activities of the OES. With this the number of pages per quarterly issue had about tripled compared to those of earlier decades (see Figure 1). A very disciplined process was instituted that has ensured that the issues appear on time. Our hats are off to those who continue to contribute to the Beacon and those who do such an outstanding job of organizing and producing what is now such a high-quality OES Beacon, beaming forth the diverse and extensive activities of the Society.
Enjoy our past NLs
You can enjoy the NL past issues from https://ieeeoes.org/publications/oes-beacon/ too!
Suleman Mazhar has been working as a professor in Information & Communication Engineering at Harbin Engineering University (China) since July 2019. He did PhD from Tokyo University (Japan) and postdoctorate from Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA). He had BS-CS from FAST-NUCES (Lahore) and MS from GIK Institute (Pakistan). He is TYSP young scientist fellow (Ministry of Science & Technology China) and have won several research grants from international organizations such as DAAD (Germany), ICIMOD (Nepal), NRPU (Higher Education Commission Pakistan), WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature) Pakistan. His research focus is deep learning and signal processing applications for environmental monitoring, with particular focus on underwater acoustics, and marine mammal conservation. He is a reviewer for professional journals such as Journal of Acoustical Society (America), IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, IEEE Sensors Journal, Applied Acoustics, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
Peng Ren is a full professor with the College of Oceanography and Space Informatics, China University of Petroleum (East China). He is the director of Qingdao International Research Center for Intelligent Forecast and Detection of Oceanic Catastrophes. He received the K. M. Scott Prize from the University of York, the Natural Science award (first rank) from China Institute of Electronics, and the Eduardo Caianiello Best Student Paper Award from 18th International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing as one co-author. He has served as an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.
Mohd Rizal Arshad is a full professor at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Malaysia, where he specializes in ocean robotics technology and intelligent system. He received his B.Eng. in Medical Electronics & Instrumentation and PhD in Electronic Engineering from University of Liverpool, UK in 1994 and 1999, respectively. He completed his MSc. in Electronic Control Engineering from the University of Salford, UK in Dec 1995. He has supervised many postgraduate students and published extensively in local and international publications. He is a senior member of the IEEE, and was awarded IEEE OES Presidential Award in 2019.
Itzik Klein is an Assistant Professor, heading the Autonomous Navigation and Sensor Fusion Lab, at the Charney School of Marine Sciences, Hatter Department of Marine Technologies, University of Haifa. He is an IEEE Senior Member and a member of the IEEE Journal of Indoor and Seamless Positioning and Navigation (J-ISPIN) Editorial Board. Prior to joining the University of Haifa, he worked at leading companies in Israel on navigation topics for more than 15 years. He has a wide range of experience in navigation systems and sensor fusion from both industry and academic perspectives. His research interests lie in the intersection of artificial intelligence with inertial sensing, sensor fusion, and autonomous underwater vehicles.
John R. Potter (IEEE M’94, SM’02, F’18) graduated in the previous century with a joint honours Mathematics and Physics Degree from Bristol and a PhD. in Glaciology and Oceanography from Cambridge, UK studying Antarctic ice mass balance, where he spent four consecutive summers. This work helped underscore the non-linear fragility of polar ice to climate change and led to him receiving the Polar Medal from Queen Elizabeth II in 1988.
Nick is a Visiting Fellow at the UK National Oceanographic Center, Southampton His nomination was endorsed by the Underwater Acoustics Technology Committee. He had worked as a Research Associate and Lecturer at University of Birmingham and has been working as a Research Scientist at the Applied Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin. He has also served as a Program Officer at the Office of Naval Research Global. He is a senior member of IEEE (OES) and a Fellow of Acoustical Society of America (ASA). Nick has also been serving as Assoc. Editor for IEEE JoE and JASA. He is widely acknowledged for his expertise are seabed acoustics, parametric array modeling, sonar beamformer, underwater signal processing.
Maurizio Migliaccio (M’91-SM’00-F’17) is Full professor of Electromagnetics at Università di Napoli Parthenope (Italy) and was Affiliated Full Professor at NOVA Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL (USA). He has been teaching Microwave Remote Sensing since 1994. He was visiting scientist at Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Lüft und Raumfahrt (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. He was member of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) scientific committee. He was member of the ASI CosmoSkyMed second generation panel. He was e-geos AdCom member. He was Italian delegate of the ESA PB-EO board. He was Member of South Africa Expert Review Panel for Space Exploration. He serves as reviewer for the UE, Italian Research Ministry (MIUR), NCST, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong Research board. He lectured in USA, Canada, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Italy. He was Italian delegate at UE COST SMOS Mode Action. He is listed in the Italian Top Scientists. He is an IEEE Trans. Geoscience and Remote Sensing AE, International Journal of Remote Sensing AE, and was IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering AE Special Issue on Radar for Marine and Maritime Remote Sensing, IEEE JSTARS AE of the Special Issue on CosmoSKyMed, Member of the Indian Journal of Radio & Space Physics Editorial board. His main current scientific interests cover SAR sea oil slick and man-made target monitoring, remote sensing for marine and coastal applications, remote sensing for agriculture monitoring, polarimetry, inverse problems for resolution enhancement, reverberating chambers. He published about 160 peer-reviewed journal papers on remote sensing and applied electromagnetics.
He has developed various types of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and related application technologies including navigation methods, a new sensing method using a chemical sensor, precise seafloor mapping methods, a precise seabed positioning system with a resolution of a few centimeters, a new sensing system of the thickness of cobalt-rich crust; and more. He has shown, by using these technologies that AUVs are practicable and valuable tools for deep-sea exploration.
Donna Kocak has had an outstanding career in defense and scientific projects developing and applying solutions in subsea optics, imaging and robotics. She graduated with an M.Sc in Computer Science in 1997 from the University of Central Florida; an MBA in 2008 from the University of Florida; and M.Sc in Industrial Engineering in 2011 from the University of Central Florida. She is currently a Senior Scientist, Advanced Concepts Engineering, and Fellow at the Harris Corporation in Melbourne, Florida, where she has developed novel optical imaging and communication solutions for under-sea defense and scientific projects. Prior to 2008 Donna Kocak was Founder and President of Green Sky Imaging, LLC (GSI) who developed laser/video photogrammetry software for underwater inspection and survey. Her earlier career positions were with Naval Training Systems Center, Florida; Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Florida; eMerge Interactive; and the Advanced Technologies Group in Florida.
John Potter has a Joint Honours degree in Mathematics and Physics from Bristol University in the UK and a PhD in Glaciology and Oceanography from the University of Cambridge on research in the Antarctic, for which he was awarded the Polar Medal in 1988. John has worked on polar oceanography, underwater acoustics, ambient noise (including imaging), marine mammals, communications, IoUT, autonomous vehicles and strategic development. He has 40 years’ international experience working at the British Antarctic Survey in the UK, NATO in Italy, SIO in California, NUS in Singapore and most recently at NTNU in Norway. John is a Fellow of the IEEE and MTS, an Associate Editor for the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, IEEE OES Distinguished Lecturer, PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer & an International Fellow of the Explorer’s Club.
Dr. James V. Candy is the Chief Scientist for Engineering and former Director of the Center for Advanced Signal & Image Sciences at the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Candy received a commission in the USAF in 1967 and was a Systems Engineer/Test Director from 1967 to 1971. He has been a Researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 1976 holding various positions including that of Project Engineer for Signal Processing and Thrust Area Leader for Signal and Control Engineering. Educationally, he received his B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Cincinnati and his M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville. He is a registered Control System Engineer in the state of California. He has been an Adjunct Professor at San Francisco State University, University of Santa Clara, and UC Berkeley, Extension teaching graduate courses in signal and image processing. He is an Adjunct Full-Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Candy is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and elected as a Life Member (Fellow) at the University of Cambridge (Clare Hall College). He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Phi Kappa Phi honorary societies. He was elected as a Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Candy received the IEEE Distinguished Technical Achievement Award for the “development of model-based signal processing in ocean acoustics.” Dr. Candy was selected as a IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for oceanic signal processing as well as presenting an IEEE tutorial on advanced signal processing available through their video website courses. He was nominated for the prestigious Edward Teller Fellowship at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Candy was awarded the Interdisciplinary Helmholtz-Rayleigh Silver Medal in Signal Processing/Underwater Acoustics by the Acoustical Society of America for his technical contributions. He has published over 225 journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports as well as written three texts in signal processing, “Signal Processing: the Model-Based Approach,” (McGraw-Hill, 1986), “Signal Processing: the Modern Approach,” (McGraw-Hill, 1988), “Model-Based Signal Processing,” (Wiley/IEEE Press, 2006) and “Bayesian Signal Processing: Classical, Modern and Particle Filtering” (Wiley/IEEE Press, 2009). He was the General Chairman of the inaugural 2006 IEEE Nonlinear Statistical Signal Processing Workshop held at the Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge. He has presented a variety of short courses and tutorials sponsored by the IEEE and ASA in Applied Signal Processing, Spectral Estimation, Advanced Digital Signal Processing, Applied Model-Based Signal Processing, Applied Acoustical Signal Processing, Model-Based Ocean Acoustic Signal Processing and Bayesian Signal Processing for IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society/ASA. He has also presented short courses in Applied Model-Based Signal Processing for the SPIE Optical Society. He is currently the IEEE Chair of the Technical Committee on “Sonar Signal and Image Processing” and was the Chair of the ASA Technical Committee on “Signal Processing in Acoustics” as well as being an Associate Editor for Signal Processing of ASA (on-line JASAXL). He was recently nominated for the Vice Presidency of the ASA and elected as a member of the Administrative Committee of IEEE OES. His research interests include Bayesian estimation, identification, spatial estimation, signal and image processing, array signal processing, nonlinear signal processing, tomography, sonar/radar processing and biomedical applications.
Kenneth Foote is a Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from The George Washington University in 1968, and a Ph.D. in Physics from Brown University in 1973. He was an engineer at Raytheon Company, 1968-1974; postdoctoral scholar at Loughborough University of Technology, 1974-1975; research fellow and substitute lecturer at the University of Bergen, 1975-1981. He began working at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, in 1979; joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1999. His general area of expertise is in underwater sound scattering, with applications to the quantification of fish, other aquatic organisms, and physical scatterers in the water column and on the seafloor. In developing and transitioning acoustic methods and instruments to operations at sea, he has worked from 77°N to 55°S.
René Garello, professor at Télécom Bretagne, Fellow IEEE, co-leader of the TOMS (Traitements, Observations et Méthodes Statistiques) research team, in Pôle CID of the UMR CNRS 3192 Lab-STICC.
Professor Mal Heron is Adjunct Professor in the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, and is CEO of Portmap Remote Ocean Sensing Pty Ltd. His PhD work in Auckland, New Zealand, was on radio-wave probing of the ionosphere, and that is reflected in his early ionospheric papers. He changed research fields to the scattering of HF radio waves from the ocean surface during the 1980s. Through the 1990s his research has broadened into oceanographic phenomena which can be studied by remote sensing, including HF radar and salinity mapping from airborne microwave radiometers . Throughout, there have been one-off papers where he has been involved in solving a problem in a cognate area like medical physics, and paleobiogeography. Occasionally, he has diverted into side-tracks like a burst of papers on the effect of bushfires on radio communications. His present project of the Australian Coastal Ocean Radar Network (ACORN) is about the development of new processing methods and applications of HF radar data to address oceanography problems. He is currently promoting the use of high resolution VHF ocean radars, based on the PortMap high resolution radar.
Hanu Singh graduated B.S. ECE and Computer Science (1989) from George Mason University and Ph.D. (1995) from MIT/Woods Hole.He led the development and commercialization of the Seabed AUV, nine of which are in operation at other universities and government laboratories around the world. He was technical lead for development and operations for Polar AUVs (Jaguar and Puma) and towed vehicles(Camper and Seasled), and the development and commercialization of the Jetyak ASVs, 18 of which are currently in use. He was involved in the development of UAS for polar and oceanographic applications, and high resolution multi-sensor acoustic and optical mapping with underwater vehicles on over 55 oceanographic cruises in support of physical oceanography, marine archaeology, biology, fisheries, coral reef studies, geology and geophysics and sea-ice studies. He is an accomplished Research Student advisor and has made strong collaborations across the US (including at MIT, SIO, Stanford, Columbia LDEO) and internationally including in the UK, Australia, Canada, Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, India, Sweden and Norway. Hanu Singh is currently Chair of the IEEE Ocean Engineering Technology Committee on Autonomous Marine Systems with responsibilities that include organizing the biennial IEEE AUV Conference, 2008 onwards. Associate Editor, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, 2007-2011. Associate editor, Journal of Field Robotics 2012 onwards.
Milica Stojanovic graduated from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, in 1988, and received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, in 1991 and 1993. She was a Principal Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in 2008 joined Northeastern University, where she is currently a Professor of electrical and computer engineering. She is also a Guest Investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Milica’s research interests include digital communications theory, statistical signal processing and wireless networks, and their applications to underwater acoustic systems. She has made pioneering contributions to underwater acoustic communications, and her work has been widely cited. She is a Fellow of the IEEE, and serves as an Associate Editor for its Journal of Oceanic Engineering (and in the past for Transactions on Signal Processing and Transactions on Vehicular Technology). She also serves on the Advisory Board of the IEEE Communication Letters, and chairs the IEEE Ocean Engineering Society’s Technical Committee for Underwater Communication, Navigation and Positioning. Milica is the recipient of the 2015 IEEE/OES Distinguished Technical Achievement Award.
Dr. Paul C. Hines was born and raised in Glace Bay, Cape Breton. From 1977-1981 he attended Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, graduating with a B.Sc. (Hon) in Engineering-Physics.